ABSTRACT

This article develops an anthropology of chokepoints: sites that constrict or ‘choke’ the flows of resources, information, and bodies upon which contemporary life depends. We argue that an ethnographic and analytical focus on chokepoints – ports, canals, tunnels, pipelines, transit corridors, and more – recasts longstanding anthropological concerns with the character and consequences of global circulation or ‘flow’. Chokepoints, we argue, are zones of operative paradox – where increased connectivity slows movement down; where the marginal become powerful; where local activities have distributed effects. Studied ethnographically, chokepoints reveal worlds animated neither by rapid circulation nor complete blockage, but by the dynamics of constriction and traffic. We approach the chokepoint as a site, an instrumental concept, and an analytic for exploring the constricted contemporary. Thinking with and through these choked arteries, we ask: What do chokepoints do? How? When? For whom? We conclude by offering eight dimensions of chokepoints as entry points for research.

摘要

本文发展了阻塞点的人类学：限制或“阻塞”当代生活所依赖的资源、信息和身体流动的场所。我们认为，对阻塞点——港口、运河、隧道、管道、运输走廊等——的民族志和分析重点重塑了人类学长期以来对全球循环或“流动”的特征和后果的关注。我们认为，阻塞点是运行悖论的区域——连接性增加会减慢移动速度；边缘变得强大的地方；当地活动具有分布式影响的地方。通过人种学研究，阻塞点揭示了充满活力的世界，既不是快速循环也不是完全阻塞，而是收缩和交通的动态。我们将阻塞点视为一个站点，一个工具概念，以及探索受限当代的分析。思考并通过这些阻塞的动脉，我们会问：阻塞点有什么作用？如何？什么时候？为了谁？最后，我们提供了八个阻塞点维度作为研究的切入点。